Windows RT’s struggles highlight Microsoft’s missteps

Windows 8 isn’t selling as fast as earlier Microsoft operating systems. Many customers who have the software dislike it so much they use add-ons to mask features. Windows Phone 8 is the fastest-growing smartphone OS, but has a tiny market share.

Both problems are solvable.

On the other hand, Windows RT looks beyond saving.

Windows RT sales are pathetic

IDC estimates Windows RT sold around a million units by the end of March. That’s after six months on the market. In comparison, Apple sells well over a million iPads every week.

That's 25 iPads for every Surface tablet.

RT suffers from being almost-a-desktop-OS in a non-desktop device. And there’s that clumsy business of needing to switch to desktop mode to handle certain tasks.

Windows 8, that’s the full version not RT, works fine on more powerful tablets and touch screen PCs. If you must have Windows on a portable device, that’s the best way to go – even if it is expensive. HP’s Elitepad shows how this can work.

Windows Phone 8

Although it has detractors, Windows Phone 8 is a fine smartphone OS.

Microsoft could have used Windows Phone 8 as its tablet OS. That’s what Apple does. iPads and iPhones both run iOS. The software running an iPad comes from the iPhone, not from the Macintosh. It was born mobile.

It looks like the market has spoken and its response to RT is ‘no thanks’. This may change If reports of a 7-inch Windows tablet are correct and Microsoft delivers something new and compelling. Otherwise, RT is doomed.